A brilliant critical piece on how critics excuse their mysogeny when criticizing YA Literature. If you never read another article on this topic, this article is the one to read.

QUOTE I LOVE:

And there it is. ”Boys adventures and female sentimentality” defines YA fiction. Because even though this book was written in 1960, we still use the phrase “female sentimentality” like it’s perfectly appropriate.

But apparently when describing YA fiction, it is.

Because this is the insidious undercurrent of all this head-shaking. YA literature, after all, is thought by anyone with a three-book-deep knowledge of the field to be the province of female authors and the silly teenage girls they write for. The books are simple, with simple world views, and they definitely do not address “appropriate subjects for sophisticated pieces of narrative art.” Because how could literature written for and about teenage girls be sophisticated pieces of narrative art?

CLICK HERE FOR THE ENTIRE ENTRY. (It is long but seriously people, this article is important -- the entire thing -- so take about five to ten minutes to read the entire thing and click through the credited research because these arguments and points need to be made and then share it. Please.)

Are you one of those people that doesn't throw away anything? I tend to be until I move. Given that my family moves about every 4 years now whereas previously it was every 6 months to a year, what I hoard can be ridiculous.

Recently though, having moved from St. Louis to here in Florida, I purged a lot but had not done the same for my email accounts. Looking back is such a sad thing for me and lonely and LJ has been one of those places where I could go and know with some certainty that my friends would always be there despite the change in my address. Not so much anymore though... is it? That's not really the case with how ghost townish LJ is nowadays and so today, I deleted around 8,000 emails that had collected in my LJ folder.

I deleted four years of fun conversations and comments and the memory of persons who are long gone from here. Some of you still remain and I appreciate you all. I don't think I like handling the realization that LJ has lost that community vibe that helped me through my last two moves.

Anyway... I just wanted a place to document my feelings and thought if anyone would understand the desolation of letting those LJ emails go, someone here would.

If you want to read my reviews of the first two books in the Lunar Chronicles, click HERE.

Omigosh… just O-M-G, there are no words for the squee here right now. Marissa Meyer has written a prequel of sorts to the Lunar Chronicles series. A surprise story for all of us who have wondered… why is Queen Levana so evil?!

“I’m thinking of this book almost as a gift to the readers who have become so involved in the world and the characters: ‘Here’s this thing you weren’t expecting!’ ” Meyer says of Fairest, which she’ll be discussing during a live Google video chat for fans on Wednesday at 9 p.m. ET/6 PT. (x)

I adore this series. Remember? And am so excited about the fourth and final book coming out November 2015, called Winter. Now based upon the information released today, fans of the Lunar Chronicles will really need to read Fairest before the final novel. (Which makes it actually five books total!)

Fairest begins when Levana is 15 years old and covers about 10 years of her life, ending about a decade before Cinder is set.

For years, Meyer has been telling readers that Levana is psychotic but for good reasons, and the book promises to reveal those as well as delve into her psyche and the factors in her life that led her to want to rule Earth.

When fans first meet her, the author says, “she’s showing signs of crazy, but in large part that’s because she’s grown up in a really poisonous household and she has a very cruel older sister who’s been mentally and physically abusive to her her whole life.

Hmmm… sounds like Queen Levana has had her own fairy tale life where she was the heroine. An interesting concept given how much I loathe her in the Lunar Chronicles so far. Is this a story of letting the bad influence you to be badder or will all be revealed in a happily ever after?

Remember when I said I'd post reviews and such for bookish pursuits. Here you go... this book looks brilliant. I have not read it yet, but just talking to the author, MG Buehrlen, I have a good idea that I am going to love this series.

Here's a sneak peek at my write-up. If you want to read the full account, click HERE.

Not that MG has anything but amazing to talk about given her debut novel’s appearance on the scene. Born of an idea that has pattered around in her brain since she reached sixteen years, MG happily took her time to craft this first of four novels in the Alex Wayfare series: The 57 Lives of Alex Wayfare.

As we spoke about influences and favorite timey-wimey things (oh yes, Whovian… is she) — MG broke down the truly inspirational from the multitude of things she has loved, watched for the sake of time travel research — and came up with two contributing inspirations out of them all: Quantum Leap and David Ives’ play, Sure Thing.

Quantum Leap led to her exploring the idea of time travel through the projection of your soul. Your body is left behind and the essence of you is projected into another body somewhere in time. You have to fit in and avoid outing yourself with the language you use and how you behave in your new environment. This struggle comes into play in 57 Lives. Alex, the lead character in this series, “stands out,” said MG. Like the lead in Quantum Leap “she is waking up in this person and being forced to live out the cultural requisites.”

That doesn’t even sound remotely easy based upon what I remember from Quantum Leap. Wow… that’s gotta be a fun prepping session or at least I hope there is some since in Quantum Leap they winged it A LOT. In fact, in 57 Lives, Alex isn’t going it alone and has a mentor who helps her transition timelines and all the in-betweens. An interesting concept given the idea of soul projection rather than physical incarnations being transported through time. Alex can walk between time, go into limbo. Wild, huh?

So yeah… the past two Fridays, I have cheated a bit on the two-for-one deal going on here in this column. I know, I know… last week was a novella and a novel and again… yep… this week too! I am reviewing an e-novella and a novel. Hold up though! A novella requires reading though, yeah? So it’s not as long, sometimes we have to mix it up to bring you the most awesome of things the fastest we can.

And the Dangerous Creatures Book tour wrapped up last night [May 29, 2014] and what better way for me to promote the giveaway we have than by reviewing the e-novella, Dangerous Dream that you must read to really get a good feel for the behind-the-scenes plot going on at the start of the book, Dangerous Creatures.

You’re probably shaking your head at that headline now that you know this review only includes an e-novella and one novel. You’re wondering, “What books?” because right now you’re only hearing about a book and a half – a quarter maybe? However, let me tell you that Margaret Stohl and Kami Garcia have made it known to the world that Dangerous Creatures is only the first in a series of books about Ridley and Link… but if that’s not good enough for you, then I am hear to tell you that this book, Dangerous Creatures ends on the cliffiest of cliffhangers and OMIGOD… there’s no way the story ends there. Okay? Yeah. I am taking deep, calming breaths as I type this out. You know how I feel if you’ve already read the book too.

Hi dear friends who may still frequent or flit in here and see what's going on on LiveJournal since they have been absent. You all are amazing for managing life and friendships online as well as off. Not that I have been totally silent. You can find me over on twitter every once in awhile.

However, this journal has been pretty much a part of the void too long.

So here I am saying hello. How are you all? Interested in reading book reviews? Because despite my howdy right now, mostly I hope to interest you all in reading... reviews... of books that I am blogging about over on Fangirlish and see if I cannot build some buzz for them.

Has anyone any interest in this remake? I adore Bonnie & Clyde and am enthralled with this video. Both the leads are favorites of mine too. Actually I usually am impressed by William Hurt and Holly Hunter too.

But damn, the cover of Bang, Bang by Nico Vega is probably my favorite thing ever right now. Her voice is divine!